Iran threatens to close Bab al-Mandab Strait

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to close “all other export routes used by the United States and its allies” after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and Washington reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, the IRGC said in a statement that the region’s energy exports would be “either for everyone or for no one”.

Analysts told Reuters that Iran was signalling it could rely on its Houthi allies in Yemen to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the strategic waterway leading to the Red Sea. Such a move could open a new front against Washington and threaten two of the world’s most important energy shipping routes.

The Bab al-Mandab Strait links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is a key route for Saudi oil exports and a significant share of global maritime trade.

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A senior Houthi official said on Monday that the group was prepared to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait if Saudi Arabia continued its attacks on Yemen. According to a report published by the Iranian television channel Press TV, the official said such a move could push oil prices to 200 dollars a barrel.

The Houthis launched missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing Sanaa airport on Monday, an attack they said violated a four-year truce between Riyadh and the Iran-aligned group.

The IRGC said on Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until “America’s evil ends”. Before the outbreak of the war in February, about one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and gas shipments passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC also announced that it had targeted what it described as command-and-control facilities, logistics sites, fuel supplies and military equipment belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, saying the attack was in response to the latest US strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.

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